Last week, Ohio police posted photos of two heroin addicts who had overdosed with their four-year-old son in the car on Facebook.
The department said they shared the pictures as a warning and to raise awareness and wanted to “deliberately shock people”. The post has been shared over 25,000 times so far.
“The city Police department recently responded to a call of an incapacitated driver, attached are photos from the scene along with the actual police report. The city administration works hand in hand with our men in blue to combat this epidemic and together with the law director we have made the decision to release the attached,” City of East Liverpool police wrote in their post.
We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.
We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis.
The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that.”
Unsurprisingly, the post was met with mixed reactions and sparked arguments on social media. Some argued that police exploited the victims and the child by posting the photos.
“Taking pictures before helping the child out of the car who is probably terrified.. and before saving the individuals no matter their situation. This is disgusting. And these are cops? What is this really helping? This is TERRIBLE,” one user wrote.
“Dear East Liverpool police dept. before you posted the OD losers, did you not think for one second to blur that poor child’s face? Seriously. You also managed to identify him by name. This poor kid already has complete douche bags for parents and you have managed to fail him again. My loving friends can’t even post pictures of their foster to adopt children without permission from the state of Ohio but you guys felt he needed to be splashed across Facebook like an inanimate object. That little kid has been through enough now everywhere he goes somebody will recognize him and associate him with his loser parents,” added another.
“It was not necessary to show this child’s face to convey the horror of the situation. This child should have a right to privacy instead of exploitation of his tragic circumstances. Show the photos so everyone can feel superior to the parents and climb on their soapboxes, fine. But show some respect for a fellow human; even though (or especially because) he is only four,” wrote another.
“ I applaud the police for posting these pictures so people can see where they’re going to end up if they even start on heroin. It’s time to stop candy coating the problem and stop sweeping it under the rug and pretending like the consequences aren’t very real and devastating. I work at a store and we’ve had two deaths in the restroom due to this awful drug. It was so difficult to go on working there after this. (I do think the child’s face should have been blurred, though.),” another woman commented.
NBC reports that the car was being driven erratically and slammed on the brakes as it approached a stopped school bus that was letting children off. The male driver told police he was rushing his comatose partner to hospital, before passing out at the wheel himself.
